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Mardi Gras in Baton Rouge has had a long and spotty history. For the most part, it wasn’t really celebrated here. The earliest celebrations were a mix of Mardi Gras and celebration of the Washington Fire Company’s organization in 1836.…

Long before the days of glamour shots and digital images edited with Photoshop, many traditional film photographers used a method of retouching the original negative with a finely pointed lead pencil to achieve a smooth, desirable skin texture. Drawing on…

David King Gleason worked as a photographer in Baton Rouge from the 1950s through the 1990s. Like most photographers, Gleason made a living though studio portraiture and wedding photography in the early years of his career. Beginning in the early…

One of the best things about working at the archives in Hill Memorial Library is you just don’t know when something interesting is going to come walking in the door. Of course, most days we don’t see anything new come…